US President Donald Trump has warned that all airspace over and around Venezuela should be treated as “closed”, marking a sharp escalation in Washington’s standoff with President Nicolas Maduro.
“To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers, please consider the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela to be closed in its entirety,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, without offering further explanation.
The message comes amid a major US military buildup in the Caribbean, where Washington has deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier and several warships as part of what it describes as an expanded anti-drug trafficking operation.
Caracas, however, says the real objective is toppling its government.
Rising tension in the Caribbean Sea
Since early September, US forces have conducted strikes on more than 20 vessels Washington claims were linked to Venezuelan drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.
More than 80 people have been killed in those attacks.
The United States has not publicly released evidence that the targeted boats were involved in narcotics trafficking or posed any threat to the US.
The campaign has sharply heightened tensions across the region, drawing criticism from governments concerned that the US military presence risks destabilising an already fragile situation.
The New York Times reported on Friday that Trump and Maduro spoke by phone last week, discussing the possibility of a meeting in the United States.
The report emerged a day after Trump hinted that US efforts to stop alleged Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” were imminent, comments that further raised alarms in Caracas and neighbouring countries.
